When Cody Rhodes challenged Damian Priest to a match at Crown Jewel, it felt beyond random.
Sure, Rhodes and Priest have beef, with their most recent Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship match clearly setting things up for a match in Saudi Arabia, but why was the match a singles contest, as opposed to a rematch that also featured Jey Uso and Finn Balor, who would almost assuredly also be at the show?
Maybe it's because WWE didn't want to change the titles once more, as the optics of the entirety of Judgment Day holding titles is a very good one, much more so than another ping-pong title reign, but after a show filled with heel victories over babyface heroes, the decision to give the Crown Jewel crowd a massive pop and a babyface victory appears to have been the right call, as there was no bigger pop on the entire show than Rhodes securing the pin and then the win.
Article Continues BelowWorking a match that had the potential to be very good but instead was more defined by interference than the in-ring battle of wills within the ring – a very common issue on this particular show – Priest didn't hit his version of the Crossrhodes, which he calls The Reckoning but is really just a rolling cutter, but instead, took three of them before being pinned cleanly throughout any reason to believe that the duo need to wrestle again for one reason or another.
Could this match have been great? Sure, but in the end, other than the poppy finish, this Crown Jewel match just sort of happened without any real reason to rewatch it in the future.
You've got a friend in JEY!#WWECrownJewel pic.twitter.com/qVvI4wn4QA
— WWE (@WWE) November 4, 2023